November 2012

Not unusually, an already confusing situation in Tibet just
got worse. Twenty-seven Tibetans have self-immolated in protest against Chinese
this month alone, according to Human
Rights Watch. That's almost one a day. Against this chaotic backdrop, Chinese
authorities have issued an arrest order for a missing monk who helped film a
2008 documentary about life in Tibet, according to his film company, Filming
for Tibet.

CPJ supporters will know that we just honored self-taught Tibetan filmmaker Dhondup Wangchen with an International Press Freedom Award, recognizing his courage documenting life under Chinese rule with full knowledge that he would face severe repercussions (he is serving a six-year jail term--you can join our petition for his release here). So we've been following with concern the latest reports that his assistant on that project, the monk Jigme Gyatso, has been missing, reportedly detained, since September.

The Syrian Internet, like the country, appears to have been
collapsing into a patchwork of unconnected systems for some time. I spent time talking to Syrians tech activists this week in Tunisia before Thursday's shutdown, and their reports from the front painted a picture of two different networks.

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The debut of the HD
version of GrupoClarín's cable news station TN could not have come at a worse time
for the Argentine media conglomerate. Conspicuously missing from Monday's premiere was coverage of a
new criminal complaint in which Clarín's lawyers accused the government of
President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner of inciting violence against the media
group. In what the company now acknowledges was a misstep, the complaint named
six pro-government journalists.

Three years ago, on November 23, 2009, 30 journalists and two
media workers were brutally
killed in the southern Philippine city of Maguindanao while travelling in a
convoy with the family and supporters of a local politician. To this day, not a
single suspect has been convicted, though local authorities have identified
close to 200. The botched trial
has been stalled with procedural hurdles. Victims' families have been
threatened and key witnesses have been slain.

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The battle for a free press sometimes feels like a war
between indignation and intimidation. Journalists learn of abuses of power,
crime, or corruption, and--indignant--they speak out. In response, the
perpetrators of those abuses--be they government officials or criminals--try to
intimidate the journalists into silence with threats, lawsuits, jail, or even
murder. Last night, the Committee to Protect Journalists paid
tribute to a handful of journalists for whom indignation is a driving
force, no matter the scale of intimidation.

More reporters are jailed in Turkey than in any other
country in the world. According to CPJ's recent survey, at least 61 are imprisoned
directly for their work, representing the second biggest media
crackdown in the 27 years we have been documenting such records. (Only Turkey
itself has rivaled the extent of this crackdown, when it jailed 78
journalists in 1996.) In the country hailed as the model moderate Islamic
republic, how is this possible?

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Haider Ali, an eyewitness
to the 2011 murder of Geo TV reporter Wali Khan Babar, was gunned down on Sunday, two days before he was set to testify in the trial of five
suspects. The murder sent shockwaves across Pakistan--one of the deadliest
countries in the world for
journalists and one of the worst in bringing the killers to justice. According
to the prosecutor in the case, Ali had identified several suspects as being involved
in Babar's murder in a recent statement before a judicial magistrate. His killing
was the latest in a series of murders that have targeted people linked to the Babar
investigation. Five others--including eyewitnesses, police officers, an informant,
and a family member of an investigator--have also been murdered.

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Like many China watchers, we at CPJ have been struggling to
interpret obscure floor
markings and tie
colors on display in Beijing as new Communist Party leaders were appointed
in a rare leadership hand-off today. The names of the top seven are no longer
in doubt. But the real question everyone's asking is: What does it mean (for
press freedom)?

Lawyers
for imprisoned investigative reporter Azimjon Askarov, who is serving a life term in Kyrgyzstan on charges
widely seen as politically motivated, filed an appeal today with the U.N. Human
Rights Committee that seeks his release.

When
a nation's most outspoken journalists are 11-year-olds, is it a good sign for the
future? On the one hand, they might grow up to ask probing questions. On the
other hand, they might end up following the path taken by their older peers and
stick to scripted exchanges.

Veracruz is a beautiful, long, thin state on the Gulf coast
of Mexico where many journalists are terrified not only of the rampant
organized crime groups that kill and control, but also of the state government.
Fear that state officials will order them murdered for what they investigate or
write has forced about a dozen journalists to flee the state, claiming that
fear also puts a clamp on coverage for those who remain. Many journalists still
working in the state tell CPJ they agree.

Approximately 30 journalists are targeted and murdered every
year, and on average, in only three of these crimes are the killers ever brought
to justice. Other attacks on
freedom of expression occur daily: bloggers are threatened, photographers
beaten, writers kidnapped. And in those instances, justice is even more rare.
Today, the Committee to Protect Journalists joins freedom of expression
advocates worldwide in a 23-day campaign
to dismantle one case at a time a culture of impunity
that allows perpetrators to gag journalists, bloggers, photographers and
writers, while keeping the rest of us uninformed.